More and more inspiration!

On Monday I went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour viewing of some amazing short films. I try to go every year, but can’t always make it. Whenever I go, I am taken back to my epic bike ride across Canada. The people in these extreme outdoor adventures go through such adversity and push the limits of the body so hard that it can’t help but be inspiring!

I have a bit of a flaw these days. My flaw is that I really like to plan my workouts, but have a difficult time finding time to do them. For instance, I was thinking that it would be great to bike to the place that I coach. Last night I had every intention of doing just that. So I got home a little before 5 and started making supper. At that point I knew that it wasn’t feasible. For me to bike there I would have had to leave at 5:45 to make it for 6:15 because class starts at 6:30. I was cooking my quinoa and making a stirfry. It was done at 5:25. That left me with 10 minutes to eat before I had to get ready in my winter biking great. NOT FEASIBLE.

This means that in my training plan I cannot count on biking to class on Tuesday nights. It’s not feasible. It’s called being realistic about what I am able and not able to do. If I take that out of my expectations, I don’t have to feel disappointed in myself because that really sucks.

So after watching these people on Monday, who dedicate their life to their extreme sport it was inspiring, but it was also humbling. I am not the kind of person who can do that. I have other obligations, friends I like to see, family I like to see, and a long-distance relationship. Balance is very important in training and setting realistic expectations is part of that. I’m working on my training plan right now and am going to be putting it into place starting next week. I’ll definitely be posting it on the website somewhere, so stay tuned to that!

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2 Responses to More and more inspiration!

Balance is a very important part of the equation for a lot of people, not many people will be able to dedicate themselves entirely to their sport as much as they may want to. Very good post. I was wondering if you might be interested becoming an official Tribesports blog partner? Your blog is great and we would love to work with you. If you are interested please drop me an email on blog@tribesports dot com.

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What is VT?

This website is one that I, Crystal Clarke, started in 2007 with big ideas. It is morphing slowly into a resourceful website for vegans and athletes alike. I put my personal touch on this website in the recipes and the training blog, as I'm a writer, a scientist, a triathlete & a vegan. So what is a vegan triathlete? Well...

vegan. n. vee-gahn. - a person who refrains from using any animal product whatever for food, clothing, or any other purpose.triathlete. n. someone who participates in races consisting of swimming, biking, and running in that order; there are several varying distances with some standard distances:
Sprint: 750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run
Olympic: 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Half Ironman: 2km swim, 90km bike, 21.1km run
Ironman: 3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42.2km run

Who am I?

My name is Crystal Clarke. I'm a vegan triathlete. I've been vegan since 2002 and a triathlete since 2003. Since then I have completed 1 Ironman, 4 half IMs, several Olympic triathlons, and many other triathlons, duathlons, running races, and biking races. My goal for each race is to finish. I'm pretty slow, but can be a middle-of-the-pack person if I'm not injured and train consistently.

In addition to being a vegan triathlete, I'm a writer, I'm an Agrologist, I'm a soil scientist, I'm a knitter, I'm an anti-consumer, I'm an environmentalist, I'm a budding Buddhist, I'm a yogi, I'm a student of life, and I'm bipolar. I'm a lot of things! I don't fit into any one category - that's what I think sets me apart from other athlete blogs.